Elke Murdock

Entering our fifth decade : An analysis of the influence of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology during its first forty years of publication

The role of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (JCCP) over the past 40 years in enhancing attention to cultural issues within psychology is discussed. Analyses are presented showing frequencies over the past decade with which JCCP authors cite other journals and frequencies with which authors in other journals cite JCCP authors. JCCP’s impact factor over four decades is compared with other relevant journals. Increased coverage in recent years of cultural issues in introductory psychology texts is documented. The journal has been successful as one of the leading outlets for cross-cultural studies and has achieved substantial influence, as measured by citations in relevant literature, in establishing the role culture plays in a broad variety of psychological issues and perspectives.

Introductory Psychology Texts and the Inclusion of Culture

This subunit and its future extensions are intended for use in courses of study that focus, either partially or completely, on psychology and culture. The content of these contributions are expected to be helpful to both teachers and students because they address the nature and scope of the inclusion of culture in basic psychology instruction – especially as it pertains to the coverage of culture in the ubiquitous (at least in the Western world) introductory psychology texts (IPTs). In this paper we present data that document the extent to which authors of IPTs have dealt with culture over a 20-year period from 1988 to 2008. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. This article is available in Online Readings in Psychology and Culture: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/orpc/vol11/iss1/1

Salience of nationality in students' spontaneous self-concept: A comparative study of a nationally homogeneous and a heterogeneous school context

The study on which this article is based investigated the salience of nationality in adolescents’ self-concept as a function of the diversity of the school context. According to the distinctiveness postulate, people selectively attend to and encode aspects that are most distinctive. We therefore predicted that students in the nationally heterogeneous school environment would mention nationality more frequently in their spontaneous self-concept when questioned than would those in the more homogeneous school setting. Furthermore, we expected minority members to mention nationality more frequently. These predictions were confirmed and implications will be discussed.

Identity and Its Construal: Learning from Luxembourg

This article examines national identity construal processes within the case study context of Luxembourg. Building on research highlighting the modalities of generalization from case studies, I present the country case that is Luxembourg. This social universe has a foreign population percentage of 47% and what is considered majority and minority becomes increasingly fluid. The migration process itself is fluid, ranging from daily migration, to medium-term stays, return visits and permanent immigration including uptake of citizenship. Within such a fluid environment, where national borders are permeable at the physical level of crossing borders and (national) societies are nested within societies, culture contact is a permanent feature in daily life. Nationality becomes a salient feature as culture contact tends to prompt reflection, resulting in questioning and (re-)negotiation of national identity. This affects the native population as well as the diverse immigrant population – with diversity going beyond the level of country of origin. Many individuals are also of mixed nationality and some examples for the construal process of national identity will be provided, illustrating how national identity is negotiated at individual level. Like a periscope, this country let s us adjust mirrors, permitting us to observe modes of identity construal which would otherwise be obstructed from the field of view. The case study that is Luxembourg allows us to look at the micro-setting of the construction, potentially of something new.

Multiculturalism in Context

We live in a global era of increasing international mobility and intercultural contact. The scale and intensity by which people from different parts of the world have become connected has accelerated dramatically, even if there are differences in the degree of exposure to globalization in different parts of the world. People are increasingly interconnected through information technology, trade and transportation. International travel has increased 700 % since 1960 (Held, 1998, quoted in Arnett, 2002). Global consumer brands such as Coca Cola, Nike or McDonald’s are ubiquitous and international corporations such as HSBC or Nissan are expanding world-wide. Exposure to global consumer brands and goods are examples for increasing intercultural exposure, even for people who stay in situ. Therefore, even if people remain in their culture of origin they face what Chen, Benet-Martinez and Bond (2008) have termed “globalization-based acculturation.” Thus even people who do not move themselves experience intercultural contact indirectly through global products, new media, films or TV series and so on or directly by coming in contact with people taking advantage of increased mobility.

The Individual in a Multicultural Context

The focus of this chapter is on the individual within a multicultural context. As Chen (2013) noted, opening up is one reaction to globalization, ethnic protectionism being another. Within this chapter, some aspects pertinent to individuals living within an increasingly multicultural context will be highlighted. Firstly, the persistence of primordial sentiments will be explored, turning to evolutionary psychology in search for some explanations. Core human motives will then be examined further with a special emphasis on the need to belong and the need for self-enhancement. Human beings need to negotiate stability and change—core elements of identity development. Selected identity theories will be reviewed, including the structure of the self and the link between the self and the cultural context. In the final part of this chapter an empirical study will be presented which explores the salience of national identity as a function of the multicultural context.

Luxembourg—In a Multicultural Context

Luxembourg can be described as a “natural laboratory” to describe processes pertaining to national identity development and experiences of culture contact at several levels. Luxembourg’s outer borders have been drawn and redrawn by those in power at the time. Historically, borders were drawn over people (Grenzen uber Menschen ziehen) without consultation of the resident population. Today, people cross borders (Menschen ziehen uber Grenzen) more or less at will. Foreigners make up nearly half of Luxembourg’s total population today. Even though the historical developments which have led to the sovereign state of Luxembourg are unique to Luxembourg, the questions concerning what constitutes the “national identity” and how to accommodate the rising foreign population concern other countries as well. Rather than discussing these phenomena at an abstract level, they are anchored in the specific case study that is Luxembourg.

On Being Bicultural in a Multicultural Environment

In the preceding chapter the influence of the cultural context on identity was shown. The question how two or more cultures are experienced by and organized within the individual will be addressed in this chapter. Within an acculturation framework (Berry, 1990), individuals are described as integrated, if they identify with and participate in both the ethnic and mainstream culture. Integrated individuals have thus also been called bicultural. Yet what does biculturalism or being bicultural actually entail? Brannen and Thomas (2010) noted that surface characteristics are not always indicative of biculturalism, and demographic or ethnic labels may only serve as a first clue as to whether a person is bicultural or not. In this chapter, I will first present definitions of biculturalism which have been suggested and explain why biculturalism is different from bilingualism, also drawing on results from an empirical study which explored the relationship between language competence and biculturalism. Going beyond language competence, the question whether bilingual persons have two personalities is also investigated. I will review both theoretical and empirical evidence. The second part of this chapter addresses the question how a second culture is actually acquired and experienced by individuals. Early models of second culture acquisition are presented first, followed by more recent models which focus on the reconciliation of the different cultures at individual level. Combining theory with practice the next empirical study investigates how adolescents growing up in a multicultural environment experience this culture contact situation. I will present the findings from this recent study and discuss the implications in the concluding part to this chapter.

On Living in a Multicultural Environment

In Chap. 3 the origins of multiculturalism were explained. As was noted, multiculturalism can have different meanings—referring to the demographic composition of society, a policy promoting diversity and equality and finally an attitude towards a culturally plural society. Whereas acculturation refers to the psychological consequences of prolonged exposure to another culture, multiculturalism at the individual level refers to the acceptance of and support for the culturally plural composition of societies at large (Celenk & van de Vijver, 2014). The focus of this chapter is the individual living in a multicultural environment and the factors influencing an individual’s attitude towards a plurally composed society. First, multiculturalism as a psychological concept will be explained, before two empirical studies will be presented. These studies investigate the attitude to multiculturalism, and in particular specific factors thought to influence this attitude. Previous studies have shown that even though multiculturalism is a broad, multifaceted concept, the attitude towards multiculturalism is actually a unidimensional construct, even though the support for multiculturalism across domains varies.